2023 Taitetsu Unno Memorial Lecture

The Institute of Buddhist Studies is pleased to announced the Taitetsu Unno Memorial lecture, to be delivered by Dr. Ruben Habito, and held on Friday March 31, from 4-6pm, both in person at the Jodo Shinshu Center and virtually.

Dr. Ruben Habito will deliver a talk entitled “Beyond Transcendence Back to Earth: A Challenge to Religions in our Time of Global Crisis.”

Our global community today is in a critical moment of our history, with impending ecological destruction, violent conflicts between sectors of our human family that needlessly destroy many lives, a yawning gap between the multitudes of those living in poverty and the very few who are able to live in luxury. There is also an increasing sense of a loss of meaning and hope for the future among the youth. In the face of all this, Religion may offer a source of solace and security, with its doctrines of transcendence, including the promise of a better afterlife, thus tending to veer the attention of their adherents from the urgent tasks of our Earth community. This lecture will explore how Religion, specifically Buddhism and Christianity, in dialogue with one another, may offer a vision and empowerment for healing our wounded selves and our wounded world.

About Dr. Ruben Habito:
Ruben L. F. Habito is Professor of World Religions and Spirituality, and Director of Spiritual Formation at Perkins School of Theology. Before coming to Perkins in 1989, he was a member of the Society of Jesus for twenty-five years, and taught at the Jesuit-administered Sophia University in Japan.  A member of the American Theological Society and of the American Academy of Religion, he has also served as President and Board member of the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies, and of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. He is the author of numerous books and articles in English and Japanese, including Be Still and Know: Zen and the Bible (2017), Zen and the Spiritual Exercises (2013), Healing Breath: Zen for Christians and Buddhists in a Wounded World (2006); Experiencing Buddhism: Ways of Wisdom and Compassion (2006) among others. He serves as Guiding Teacher of the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas, Texas, where he resides with his spouse Maria Reis Habito. Together they have two adult sons, Florian and Benjamin.

This event is made possible by the generous support of the Unno family and in honor of Rev. Dr. Taitetsu Unno (1929-2014).

A prolific author and scholar, Rev. Dr. Unno was a graduate of the Univeristy of California, Berkeley, and Tokyo Univeristy. For forty years he taught in the field of Buddhist studies, first at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, then at Smith College, where he served as Department Chair and as the Jill Ker Conway Professor of World Religions. He was the author, translator, and editor of numerous academic volumes and articles, but he is perhaps best known for his two works introducing Shin Buddhism to English-language audiences, River of Fire, River of Water: An Introduction to the Pure Land Tradition of Shin Buddhism and Shin Buddhism: Bits of Rubble Turned into Gold, as well as his translation Tannisho: A Shin Buddhist Classic. In addition to his prolific scholarly career, Rev. Dr. Unno was also an ordained Shin Buddhist minister in Nishi Honganji tradition, and he devoted his career to working in Shin Buddhist communities across North America.

In celebration of his life and accomplishments, IBS will honor Rev. Dr. Unno at this special event. Following the delivery of the Unno Memorial Lecture, a scholarship award will be made to a IBS student for outstanding work in a master’s level thesis.

Download the event program here.

Register for IN PERSON attendance: https://forms.gle/pfzWDR4MjSGgRbWM9

Register for ZOOM attendance: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEpfumuqDIpEty87InS_W6iUODMqs_ipx2W